'The Event' recap: 'Lost' All Over Again? Season 1, Episode 1

The Event has arrived. But are we ready for it? The show - another mystery-driven, sci-fi tinged catastrophe culture saga where the past is a conspiracy to be untangled, the future is a code to be cracked, and the present is a conflict of hidden agendas to be exposed--comes after a turbulent, tiring year for such stuff. Lost ended after six captivating but taxing years with a polarizing finale. Heroes, sickly for longer than it was healthy, was finally put out of its misery. FlashForward launched, lurched, crashed. Itâll be interesting to see how many viewers thought The Event was a happening worth investigating. In recent seasons, freaky-geeky fables about our murky, nervy times have proven capable of inspiring massive curiosity (see: the strong debuts for The Bionic Woman, Fringe, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, FlashForward), if not always sustaining it. But after the finishes, flushes and failures of last season, I wonder about the genre's current allure, especially when itâs manifested in the form of a show that would seem to demand a long-term commitment in order to derive ultimate satisfaction. Are we ready to go steady with another piece of strange so soon after a year of hard break-ups and bad dates? The Event will test the hypothesis.